Friday, September 27, 2013

Nearly 10,000 patients have been notified that their records may have been inappropriately accessed from November 2011 to August 2013 by a former employee of a Ft Lauderdale hospital. The data accessed, possibly for tax fraud, included patient names, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers.

This is the second breach for this hospital, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In 2010, a hospital employees stole Social Security numbers and protected health information (PHI) causing 44,000 patients to be notified of a potential breach of their PHI.

"This is the second breach for this hospital, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2010, a hospital employees stole Social Security numbers and protected health information (PHI) causing 44,000 patients to be notified of a potential breach of their PHI." - Healthcare IT News

It is unclear how the hospital learned of this most recent breach and why the inappropriate access had been going on for almost two years. Healthcare organizations seeking proactive detection of PHI breaches can now utilize low-cost on-demand SaaS analytics services.

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